Woman: I smoking since nine

A WOMAN confessed in the San Fernando Magistrates’ court yesterday that she has been smoking since nine.

Shalana Hamilton, 27, of Moruga, pleaded guilty to possession of 5.7 grammes of marijuana on Thursday and admitted to magistrate Alicia Chankar that she smokes the drug three times a day.

The magistrate heard from police prosecutor Cleyon Seedan that on Thursday, PC Aquiyl Abraham confronted Hamilton inside Oxygen Bar, San Fernando searched her handbag and found a clear plastic bag containing the marijuana.

“Ma’am, do you have an addiction? How often do you smoke,” Chankar asked. Hamilton replied, “Yes, I am addicted. I smoke it about three times a day.” The woman said that her mother, father and boyfriend were in court. They stepped forward next to the dock at the request of the magistrate.

One of the relatives said that Hamilton used to steal her grandfather’s cigarettes when she was a girl. Asked how long she had been smoking, Hamilton replied, “Since I was nine years...I wouldn’t lie.” The relative said that he repeatedly warned her that if she intends to have children, she should give up the habit, “but she never listened.”

The relative admitted, when asked by Chankar, that family members never sought professional help for Hamilton. The magistrate also questioned the accused woman’s boyfriend who himself admitted smoking marijuana which he preferred to rum to unwind after a hard day’s work. To this, Chankar retorted, “You think this work I do here is not hard?”

Hamilton was ordered to attend drug treatment clinic and return to court on February 1.